1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an operational apparatus for a vehicle slide door.
2. Description of the Related Art
As described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,203,112; 4,502,246; 5,605,363; 5,718,465 and the like, various operational apparatus for a vehicle slide door have been well known.
A first problem of the conventional operational apparatus of a vehicle slide door is in that a fail-safe mechanism which interrupts a closing operation of a powered closing unit for moving a slide door from a half-latched position to a full-latched position, is insufficient. The conventional fail-safe mechanism is arranged to be operated by an emergency operation of an outside operating handle which is provided on an outer surface of the slide door or by the emergency operation of an inside operating handle which is provided on an inner surface of the slide door. However, if a child-proof mechanism which may be installed in the operational apparatus is in a child-proof state, the emergency operation of the inside operating handle is not transmitted to the fail-safe-mechanism, therefore the fail-safe mechanism does not work.
A second problem is in that the inside operating handle can be turned only in one direction. A typical inside operating handle is turned by an operating force only in a backward direction of the vehicle body. Therefore, when moving the door backward to open it, the operating force is smoothly and effectively transmitted to the slide door. However, it is difficult to smoothly and effectively transmit, to the slide door, the operating force in the forward direction of the vehicle body which is necessary for closing the slide door. Further, in a case where the vehicle is provided with a latch type full-open holder such as a device described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,502,246 which holds the slide door in a full-open position, in order to close the door the inside operating handle should be pressed forward after the holder has been released by pulling the inside operating handle backward. Therefore, it is very difficult to smoothly close the slide door.